


ask a question, get an answer

by obstinateRixatrix



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Fluff, M/M, geting together, it’s a museum date, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 04:39:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14301003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obstinateRixatrix/pseuds/obstinateRixatrix
Summary: Hindsight is 20/20, but Ryuji feels pretty effin' dense for missing this.





	ask a question, get an answer

**Author's Note:**

> saw someone ask for foxskull while lookin for foxskull so I polished up a vague draft I’ve had since june lol
> 
> this is rated g but there *is* one instance of the f-word... the fword... I figured it’d still still be g tho
> 
> thanks sine for the once-over :V

Yusuke definitely wasn't the kind of guy Ryuji thought he'd be hanging out with. They don't have much in common; Yusuke's all fixed intensity, a focus that’s impossible to break, and Ryuji? Not so much. It’s usually impossible to get him focused. That kind of contrast is a recipe for disaster.

But, things happen— 'things' as in the whole 'exposing Yusuke's mentor as an abusive fraud’ situation, along with ‘recruiting Yusuke in the Phantom Thieves’ after school social reform project’— and after that, it’s pretty inevitable they’d fumble into. Something.

So they hang out. Even though Yusuke can be pretty weird and kind of hard to read, he's also refreshingly straightforward as long as the right questions get asked. And that was nice. It made asking questions a lot easier, which meant they were free to fumble until both of them ended up on the same page. And that’s how Yusuke goes from the kind of guy Ryuji couldn't stand, to the kind of guy he couldn't get enough of.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Ryuji feels pretty effin' dense for missing this. It hits him like a lightning bolt, which sucks, because it doesn’t even happen during anything important. They’re just walking around a pretty empty gallery— since when did he start going to galleries?— talking about art— since when did he know anything about art!?— and suddenly, suddenly, it hits him that he’s at a gallery talking about art like he knows shit-all about it, because he _does_ know shit-all about it, because of Yusuke.

Art never was Ryuji’s thing. Comics were his thing, doodles were his thing, but calling any of it ‘art’ seemed kinda... not his place. But somehow, Yusuke made it his place? Like, Yusuke _wants_ to hear about what looks cool, and why it looks cool, and he wants to hear that stuff from Ryuji.

It’s nice. It’s _been_ nice, and it’s something he can take for granted now, and that’s also kinda nice. Of course Yusuke’s gonna check out this cool tag Ryuji saw along the Yamanote line, of course Ryuji’s gonna check out some art show about cool lookin’ demons.

“Ryuji?”

What is it about Yusuke that drags people into his orbit? Ryuji shouldn’t be at some fancy gallery. Hell, Ryuji shouldn’t be _allowed_ in a fancy gallery, but here he is, talking about lighting and colors and shit. The lighting’s pretty cool though.

“Ryuji, are you alright?”

“Huh?” Ryuji starts, snapping back to reality. “Yeah, I’m fine”

Yusuke doesn’t seem convinced. “What’s on your mind?”

“I’m just thinking about. Stuff.” For a second, Ryuji considers waving it off, but it’s too late— in that second he’s already started with “Hey man,” which is terrible. Who starts a major emotional revelation with ‘hey man’? Ryuji ‘great at feelings’ Sakamoto, apparently.

But Yusuke’s waiting with a no-pressure kind of patience, which is enough to spur Ryuji forward.

“You know you’re important to me, right?” Ryuji continues. Who knows where Ryuji’s going with this? Not him, that’s for sure.

Yusuke looks startled. In a good way? But not for long; he takes the subject change in stride. “I’m aware, though I certainly appreciate the affirmation of our relationship.” He smiles. It’s small and subtle and entirely too genuine. “You’ve been a significant presence in my life for quite some time now.”

“Yeah?”

“Of course. I’ll have to remind you more often if you’re this taken aback.”

“No, you really don’t,” Ryuji says— the last thing he wants is to come off as needy.

“You mean the world to me, Ryuji,” Yusuke continues, despite protests. “Words can’t express how grateful I am that serendipity brought us together.”

It’s so over the top and he’s so obviously teasing Ryuji in some way, but it’s still a _lot_ , and Ryuji can’t do anything but flush bright red and sputter incoherently, much to Yusuke’s amusement.

“What an arresting expression,” Yusuke says, because he’s a jerk. And then, in a totally casual and thoughtless way, Yusuke takes Ryuji’s hand, leading him towards the next exhibit, and Ryuji swears his heart stops then and there.

It restarts with a vengeance, and shit, he’s gotta say _something_ — so Ryuji blurts out, "Do you wanna go out with me?"

Yusuke stops abruptly. Ryuji walks right into him. For someone so thin, he's like a brick wall. Yusuke turns around, looking bewildered, which is kind of nerve-wracking, but they're also still holding hands, which is promising, so, there's that. He tilts his head and asks, "Aren't we already going out?"

"We're—?" Oh, damnit. "No, I don't mean like, going _out_ , I mean like. Dating."

"I was under the impression that this was a date," Yusuke says, and. What the fuck.

"You thought this was a date?" Ryuji repeats. It’s his turn to be confused, and boy is he ever.

“I’ve been aware of your attention for some time, Ryuji.” He says it so matter-of-fact, as if he isn’t pulling the rug from under everything Ryuji thought he knew.

“Huh?” Ryuji thinks back, cycling through everything he knows about their entire relationship in the span of two seconds, trying to find anything that would get anything to make sense. He doesn’t. “Huh!?”

“You’ve been quite fixated on getting closer to me,” Yusuke explains. “I seem to occupy your thoughts, if your frequent invitations to ‘hang out’ were any indication. At first I believed it to be a platonic interest, but...”

Was he really that obvious? Did everyone know his feelings before he did? “I never said anything,” Ryuji tries, a last-ditch effort to regain some dignity.

“Well, you’re rather shy, after all.”

“What? No way.”

“Such a protest would hold more weight if you were able to take a compliment,” Yusuke says, and wait. Was he flirting? The entire time? Is he flirting right now? Shit, why’s Ryuji so bad at this.

“You're always two steps ahead of me, huh,” Ryuji says, giving up. “When did you get so good at reading people?”

“Just you,” Yusuke says, which is totally _unfair_. “In any case, for the most part I’ve been following your lead.”

And that’s— it’s kind of true, maybe? It puts some stuff in a different light, that’s for sure. They wouldn’t have spent so much time together if only Ryuji did the asking.

“I can’t believe you thought we’ve been dating. That we’ve been dating? Shit, I dunno, this is confusing.”

"These things happen," Yusuke says, but no, they really don't. Still, everything worked out just fine, apparently, so Ryuji just. Accepts it. Lets Yusuke lead him around on what’s not even their first date. They can work out the details later.

**Author's Note:**

> tbh I got the information on where to find street art in tokyo from like a 2008 messageboard so.... May Not Be Accurate Ten Years Later. please dont go along the Yamanote line looking for cool tags.
> 
> a while ago me & some pals joked abt filling out a foxskull confession punnett square but I guess joke’s on me, as always,


End file.
